Poker Video: MTT/SNG by DJ Sensei (Mid Stakes)

Although it's frustrating that you've run so bad there aren't as many interesting late game spots to talk about, on the other hand it's a good illustration of the nature of variance on any given Sunday, and the sort of mindset required to take it in stride and continue playing optimally.

I have a question though. What sort of approach do you take in the late middle stages, or when ITM, at a table where there are several regs aggressively 3betting your opens around the 30bb stage? Do you start opening tighter and 3betting more, or do you also pick good spots to 4bet jam as a semibluff, e.g. like the 98s hand at the 8 minute mark?

It seems to me that being in tune with the psychological dynamic of the table, and working out just how much you can get away with preflop, is probably what separates the best regs from the others at that stage. Is that a fair comment?

First, this is a part of my game that I really need to work on, so when I saw that you finally made it to this stage I was way excited. It'd be nice if you could have ran somewhere around average at least to keep the games going. But I liked adding in Vanessa's table with her controlled maniacal play.

I really enjoyed the talk during the live play portion despite a couple spots where it went completely silent. I just wanted to add that the AK 3bettor vs your 98s was a reg in the 2p2 MTT area, so I think your reads are spot on and it justifies your shove that much more.

In the 55 hand, I remember you saying previously that you generally don't open light in these spots. Light being that you're not folding after your open. When I first saw the 55 open I was like WTF!??! But thank you for explaining that you had at least 2/4 of the remaining players pegged as shoving light over you, making it +ev. I also like the set mining there. We still have a good stack to open shove when we miss, possibly better then we would have, had we folded. And we're getting 6:1 pre w/ another 8:1 implied. Assuming he's stacking his whole range is pretty easy. I don't think the value lost by calling pre is > the value gained of having a 35x stack at that point where we could really punish the table. Which I don't think you went into directly, but that was my take on the situation.

Please run better though .

Although it's frustrating that you've run so bad there aren't as many interesting late game spots to talk about, on the other hand it's a good illustration of the nature of variance on any given Sunday, and the sort of mindset required to take it in stride and continue playing optimally.

I have a question though. What sort of approach do you take in the late middle stages, or when ITM, at a table where there are several regs aggressively 3betting your opens around the 30bb stage? Do you start opening tighter and 3betting more, or do you also pick good spots to 4bet jam as a semibluff, e.g. like the 98s hand at the 8 minute mark?

It seems to me that being in tune with the psychological dynamic of the table, and working out just how much you can get away with preflop, is probably what separates the best regs from the others at that stage. Is that a fair comment?

I'm not sure if I talked about this to one of my students or in one of the videos, but I'll reiterate.

Basically, if I'm in a situation, where I'm at a tough table and the regs aren't giving my opens any respect, I most certainly tighten up.

The reason I do this is because it causes them to make bigger mistakes. Typically they won't notice that I've tightened up or they won't care because their style is just very aggressive. So because I've tightened up, they're going to start to play their ranges incorrectly. For instance, they're making a mistake when they are 3-betting a tight open because again, its either their style to 3-bet a lot or because they're not realizing how much I've tightened up.

I make this adjustment rather than becoming even more loose because you're just skyrocketing your variance and I think there is a greater chance we make preflop mistakes by readjusting.

@stickity:

This is sort of the problem with live videos. They're far more entertaining, but sometimes this happens and it cannot be helped.

It is also hard for me to comment constantly when I'm 12 tabling. You all can only see 4 of them! It is just something that takes practice and every time I do it I'll get a little bit better.

Thanks for the comments (both of you).

Time Link to 00:02:33

Be nice if you gave a little more content during free trial. Get mostly fluff and then it's over

Be nice if you gave a little more content during free trial. Get mostly fluff and then it's over

You're welcome to watch any of our other 1000+ videos if you prefer something else. While we did get a little silly in this one (5+ hours of recording while getting crushed can do that to you!), there is still plenty of useful discussion.

This is sort of the problem with live videos. They're far more entertaining, but sometimes this happens and it cannot be helped.

It is also hard for me to comment constantly when I'm 12 tabling. You all can only see 4 of them! It is just something that takes practice and every time I do it I'll get a little bit better.

One good MTT-reg in other forums made a very interesting video by starting to record it when he had a "sick run". He did have 4 tables at 50 or less people remaining on a few different sites and just closed the tournaments when he busted out of them and focused on the remaining ones. I would think that it would make a very good video, if you could do the same. I know I would love the live commentary on the final stages even of a single tournament.

During this series it has been about the stack building phase and minefield, but I would like to see bubble, in the money play and the final stages as well. Live commentary trumps HH reviews most of the time, but I have really liked how this series has done it, by combining both.

I liked the comments and discussion you have had going on at the series. Especially when you disagree and have different views.

Be nice if you gave a little more content during free trial. Get mostly fluff and then it's over

Ashame this is the only video available to watch on the site.I think he thinks this is like when HBO or Showtime have a free trial weekend... that the site is open to everyone for this particular 7 days and just showing videos that are on the front page. That's the only way this comment makes sense.Figures for a guy that uses his name as his username.

Time Link to 01:00:05

I think ppl are using the min-reraise these days in a similar way to the min donk bet. It doesn't necessarily mean a big pair, often it is to throw a reg off balance, which it does! So I think they do it with AJ, AQ and KQ type hands aswell. Because we think the villain will shove any flop after we check to him then it would seem that it's an easy set mining spot. However if we believe his range includes high card hands aswell as big pairs, perhaps (huge speculation) 50/50 of each, then we should probably call the flop. It seems marginal to me but if someone could stove it I'm sure it would clear it up.

Its awesome that Vanessa is also included playing live in this video as well... I did not know her name was suckoutqueen before she became a pokerstars pro. I follow Vanessa all the time love the way she plays and explains her thought process... Thanks a lot guys... love tournamentality and tournament trials so far a lot!!